For the first time in my life I’m in charge of a garden. Is it too late to plant? | Ashe Davenport

For the first time in my life I’m in charge of a garden.

I envy women with strong opinions about this flower or that.

I hope to someday have the confidence to make sweeping, ludicrous statements like Madonna ’s “I absolutely loathe hydrangeas” My mother is a competent, unsentimental gardener.

The first frost arrived in the morning , bordering the fallen leaves in fine ice crystals that winked at me in the early sun.

My plants stood in their bed, as peaceful and defiant as a row of baby strollers outside a Norwegian coffee house in winter .

The fresh air would do them good, or maybe it wouldn't, and I’d try again next year .